The present invention relates to a cover glass adhering device, more precisely relates to a cover glass adhering device, which mounts a cover glass onto a mounting medium covering a microscope specimen on a slide glass.
A method of making a microscope specimen, e.g., a tissue slice of an affected part of a patient, is shown in FIG. 17. The method comprising the steps of: slicing a tissue of the affected part; mounting the tissue slice 10 onto a slide glass 12; removing fat from the tissue slice 10; dyeing the tissue slice 10; dropping a mounting medium, which includes a solvent, onto the tissue slice 10 on the slide glass 12; and mounting a cover glass 16 onto a mounting medium pattern 140, which is formed by dropping the mounting medium along the tissue slice 10. The solvent in the mounting medium evaporates, and the mounting medium solidifies, so that the cover glass 16 is adhered on the slide glass 12.
For example, in hospitals, a lot of microscope specimens must be made in a short time.
To automatically make the microscope specimens, a dropping device (see FIG. 18), which automatically drops the mounting medium onto the specimens 10 on the slide glasses 12, was disclosed in the Japanese Patent Gazettes No. 59-157533 and No. 61-66141. In FIG. 18, compressed air, which is compressed by a compressor 102, is introduced into an upper inner space of a container 100, in which the mounting medium including the solvent is reservoired, via a regulator 106 of a pressurizing pipe 104. The mounting medium in the container 100 is pushed and sent, by the compressed air in the container 100, to a tank 112 via a spouting pipe 108, whose one end is opened in a lower part of the container 100. The mounting medium in the tank 112 is dropped onto the specimen on the slide glass 12 from a drop nozzle 114. Amount of dropping the mounting medium can be controlled by a control valve 110, which opens and closes with regular time separations. A table 116, on which the slide glass 12 is mounted, is slid in a direction of an arrow, so that the mounting medium can be dropped along the specimen 10 and the mounting medium pattern 140 having the prescribed pattern can be formed.
Usually, a plurality of cover glasses 16, each of which will cover the specimen 10 on the slide glass 12, are piled in a holder container. Thus, the uppermost glass 16 of the piled cover glasses must be taken out from the holder container.
The cover glass 16 has a thickness of 0.06-0.25 mm and flat surfaces, so the piled cover glasses 16 are mutually tightly fitted.
A device for taking out the uppermost cover glass of the piled cover glasses 16 from a holder container was disclosed in the Japanese Patent Gazette No. 58-30636. The device is shown in FIG. 19.
In the device shown in FIG. 19, a press member 204 is pierced through an elevating member 202, which can be moved in the vertical direction, and its lower end 205 is biased downward by a spring 203. A sucking pad 206 is provided to the elevating member 202. To take out the uppermost cover glass 16a of the piled cover glasses 16 in a holder container 200, the elevating member 202 is moved downward to push one end of the uppermost glass 16a by the lower end 205 of the press member 204, and the other end of the uppermost glass 16a is pulled upward by the sucking member 206 of the elevating member 202. At that time, an upper end of the press member 204 is projected upward, against the elasticity of the spring 203, from the elevating member 202.
Next, the elevating member 202 is moved upward as shown in FIG. 19. With this action, the other end of the cover glass 16a is pulled upward by the sucking member 206, and the cover glass 16a is bent downward, so that the cover glass 16a can be removed from the piled glasses 16 and taken out from the holder container 200.
A device for mounting and adhering the cover glass 16, which has been taken out from the holder container 200, onto the mounting medium pattern 140, which has been formed on the slide glass 12 by dropping the mounting medium, was disclosed in the Japanese Patent Gazette No. 3-40367. The device is shown in FIG. 20.
In the device shown in FIG. 20, a press member 306 is pierced through a holder member 300, which can be moved in the vertical direction, and its lower end 304 is biased downward by a spring 302. A sucking pad 308 is provided to the holder member 300. To mount and adhere the cover glass 16 onto the mounting medium pattern 140, which includes the specimen 10 and which is formed on the slide glass 12 by dropping the mounting medium, one end of the cover glass 16 is sucked by the sucking pad 308. At that time, the other end of the cover glass 16 is pushed downward by the lower end 304 of the press member 306, so that the other end of the cover glass 16 is located below the one end thereof.
Next, the holder member 300 is moved downward and toward the slide glass 12, which has been horizontally mounted on a table 310, until the other end of the cover glass 16 contacts an upper face of one end of the slide glass 12. With further moving the holder member 300 downward, the one end of the cover glass 16 is gradually moved toward the upper face of the slide glass 12. With this action, the cover glass 16 pushes the mounting medium pattern 140 toward the other end of the slide glass 12 and tightly fits thereon, so that air bubbles between the slide glass 12 and the cover glass 16 can be pushed out by the cover glass 16.
Upon completing or immediately before completing the action of mounting the cover glass 16, the sucking pad 308 releases the cover glass 16 and the holder member 300 is moved upward, so that the cover glass 12 can be left on the slide glass 12.
The inventors of the present invention have studied a cover glass adhering device, which includes a unit for taking out the cover glass and a unit for mounting the cover glass, so as to automatically make a microscope specimen.
In the cover glass adhering device, the sequential steps for adhering the cover glass onto a specimen on a slide glass can be executed automatically.
However, the cover glass adhering device has following disadvantages: it is difficult to always drop fixed amount of mounting medium onto the specimen; it is difficult to always form a mounting medium pattern into a prescribed pattern; the device must be large in size; and a long cover glass cannot be used.
An object of the present invention is to provide a cover glass adhering device, which is capable of dropping fixed amount of mounting medium, using cover glasses having various length, and being small in size.
The inventors have studied and found: the size of the device can be smaller than that of the conventional device, in which the slide glass is slid, by sliding a drop nozzle; and fixed amount of the mounting medium can be supplied by using a proper supply unit for supplying fixed amount of the mounting medium, e.g., a plunger pump, and removing a drop of the mounting medium dangling from said drop nozzle.
And, they found that mounting medium patterns can be always formed into a prescribed pattern by the steps of: stopping a movement of the drop nozzle at a position, at which the drop action of the mounting medium is begun; beginning the drop action thereof; and moving the drop nozzle along the slide glass.
Further, they found that a rotational angle of a holding member, which holds one end of the uppermost cover glass of a plurality of cover glasses, can be made narrower by slantingly piling the cover glasses in a holder container.
The cover glass adhering device of the present invention, which mounts a cover glass onto a mounting medium covering a microscope specimen on a slide glass, comprises:
a drop nozzle for dropping the mounting medium onto the specimen on a slide glass, which is held horizontally;
a removing member for removing a drop of the mounting medium dangling from the drop nozzle, the removing member being located outside of the slide glass; and
a traveling unit for traveling the drop nozzle, from which the dangling drop of the mounting medium has been removed by the removing member, along the specimen on the slide glass so as to drop a prescribed amount of the mounting medium over the specimen.
Another cover glass adhering device of the present invention, which mounts a cover glass onto a mounting medium covering a microscope specimen on a slide glass, comprises:
a holding member being capable of holding one end of an uppermost glass of the cover glasses, which have been slantingly piled in a holder container;
a rotary unit for turning the holding member so as to downwardly bend the uppermost glass and remove the same from the adjacent cover glass; and
a vertical drive unit for vertically moving the holding member and the rotary unit.
Further, the cover glass adhering device of the present invention, comprises:
means for conveying a slide glass, the conveying means being provided between a basket container, in which a plurality of slide glasses, on each of which a microscope specimen is mounted, are accommodated, and a rack, in which the slide glasses, on each of which a cover glass is mounted to cover the specimen, will be accommodated, the conveying means having a conveyor plate, which intermittently conveys the slide glass, which is horizontally held, toward the rack;
means for taking out the slide glass from the basket container and horizontally putting the slide glass onto a predetermined position in the conveyor plate;
means for dropping a mounting medium, the dropping means including:
a drop nozzle dropping the mounting medium onto the specimen on the slide glass, which has been horizontally conveyed to a predetermined position by the conveying means;
a traveling unit for traveling the drop nozzle along the specimen on the slide glass so as to drop a prescribed amount of the mounting medium supplied by a supply unit, which is capable of supplying the prescribe amount of the mounting medium, over the specimen; and
a control section for controlling the traveling unit and the supply unit so as to stop the movement of the drop nozzle at a start end, at which the drop nozzle starts to drop the mounting medium onto the slide glass and move the drop nozzle along the slide glass after starting the drop action; and
means for holding and adhering the cover glass, the holding-and-adhering means including:
a holding member being capable of holding one end of an uppermost glass of the cover glasses, which have been slantingly piled in a holder container;
a take-out unit turning the holding member so as to downwardly bend the uppermost glass and remove the same from the adjacent cover glass, then taking out the uppermost glass from the holder container; and
a mounting unit gradually mounting the cover glass, whose one end is held by the holding member, onto the mounting medium, which covers the specimen on the slide glass conveyed to a predetermined position, from the other end to the one end.
In the cover glass adhering device, the traveling unit may include:
an elevating unit for moving the drop nozzle in the vertical direction; and
a sliding unit for sliding the drop nozzle along the specimen on the slide glass until a position outside of the slide glass. With this structure, the drop nozzle can be smoothly moved to the position out of the slide glass.
The cover glass adhering device may further comprise a container, in which a solvent for preventing solidification of the mounting medium is reservoired, being located at a position, which is outside of the slide glass and at which a front end of the drop nozzle can enter the container. With this structure, closing the drop nozzle can be prevented even if the device is stopped for a long time.
In the cover glass adhering device, the control section of the dropping means may control the movement of the traveling unit so as to put the front end of the drop nozzle into a container, in which a solvent for preventing solidification of the mounting medium is reservoired, before dropping the mounting medium, while stopping or after the dropping action. With this structure, closing the drop nozzle can be prevented even if the device is stopped for a long time.
In the cover glass adhering device, the holding-and-adhering means may comprise:
a sucking member being capable of sucking the one end of the uppermost glass of the cover glasses, which have been slantingly piled in the holder container;
a rotary unit for turning the sucking member so as to make the other end of the uppermost glass contact with an inner face of the holder container and bend the uppermost glass; and
a pin being provided in the vicinity of the sucking member, the pin downwardly pushing the uppermost glass, which is bent, so as to deform the uppermost cover glass into an S-shape. With this structure, long cover glasses can be easily taken out from the holder container.
In the cover glass adhering device, the control section of the dropping means may control the traveling unit and the supply unit so as to stop the travel of the drop nozzle, which is moved along the slide glass, after stopping the drop action. With this structure, no air bubbles are left in the mounting medium when the cover glass is mounted on the slide glass.
In the cover glass adhering device, a supporting section of the rack, in which the slide glasses are accommodated, may have a inclined face, with which side faces of the slide glasses come into contact. With this structure, the mounting medium stuck on the side faces of the piled slide glasses will not be stuck on the rear faces thereof.